The Lumina, built in 1905 by Hugh MacRae, was three stories tall, lit by 1,000 candles, and 25,000 square feet of fun, swimming, and dancing at Wrightsville Beach. Special trains ran from Wilmington, and it was \"the\" place to be up to the 40s. It was torn down in 1973.

In the first half of the 20th-century, many families who were not affluent had to spend their summers at home rather than vacationing elsewhere. However, they often found much to do in their hometowns. Most towns had a Silver Cornet Band, a baseball team, and a trolley line. People threw parties at the trolley's terminus, and often visited family members who lived in rural areas. A continuation of this article appears in the July 1978 edition of THE STATE.\r\n